Tommy was in Miss Ailie's senior class now, though by no means at the top of it, and her mind was often disturbed about his future. On this subject Aaron had never spoken to anyone, and the problem gave Tommy himself so little trouble that all Elspeth knew was that he was to be great and that she was to keep his house. So the school-mistress braved an interview with Aaron for the sake of her favorite.  
"You know he is a remarkable² boy," she said.
 
"At his lessons, ma'am?" asked Aaron, quietly.
 
Not exactly at his lessons, she had to admit.
 
"In what way, then, ma'am?"
 
Really Miss Ailie could not say. There was something wonderful about Tommy, you felt it, but you could not quite give it a name. The warper³ must have noticed it himself.
 
"I've heard him saying something o' the kind to Elspeth," was Aaron's reply.
 
"But sometimes he is like a boy inspired," said the school-mistress. "You must have seen that?"
 
"When he was thinking o' himsel'," answered Aaron.
 
"He has such noble sentiments."
 
"He has."
 
"And I think, I really think," said Miss Ailie, eagerly, for this was what she had come to say, "that he has got great gifts for the ministry⁴."
 
"I'm near sure o't," said Aaron, grimly.
 
"Ah, I see you don't like him."
 
"I dinna," the warper acknowledged quietly, "but I've been trying to do my duty by him for all that. It's no every laddie that gets three years' schooling⁵ straight on end."
 
This was true, but Miss Ailie used it to press her point. "You have done so well by him," she said, "that I think you should keep him at school for another year or two, and so give him a chance of carrying a bursary. If he carries one it will support him at college; if he does not—well, then I suppose he must be apprenticed⁶ to some trade."
 
"No," Aaron said, decisively; "if he gets the chance of a college education and flings it awa', I'll waste no more siller on his keep. I'll send him straight to the herding⁷."
 
"And I shall not blame you," Miss Ailie declared eagerly.
 
"Though I would a hantle rather," continued the warper, "waur my money on Elspeth."
 
"What you spend on him," Miss Ailie argued, "you will really be spending on her, for if he rises in the world he will not leave Elspeth behind. You are prejudiced against him, but you cannot deny that."
 
"I dinna deny but what he's fond o' her," said Aaron, and after considering the matter for some days he decided⁸ that Tommy should get his chance. The school-mistress had not acted selfishly, for this decision, as she knew, meant that the boy must now be placed in the hands of Mr. Cathro, who was a Greek and Latin scholar. She taught Latin herself, it is true, but as cautiously as she crossed a plank⁹ bridge, and she was never comfortable in the dominie's company, because even at a tea-table he would refer familiarly to the ablative absolute instead of letting sleeping dogs lie.
 
"But Elspeth couldna be happy if we were at different schools," Tommy objected instantly.
 
"Yes, I could," said Elspeth, who had been won over by Miss Ailie; "it will be so fine, Tommy, to see you again after I hinna seen you for three hours."
 
Tommy was little known to Mr. Cathro at this time, except as the boy who had got the better of a rival teacher in the affair of Corp, which had delighted him greatly. "But if the sacket thinks he can play any of his tricks on me," he told Aaron, "there is an awakening¹⁰ before him," and he began the cramming¹¹ of Tommy for a bursary with perfect confidence.
 
But before the end of the month, at the mere¹² mention of Tommy's name, Mr. Cathro turned red in the face, and the fingers of his laying-on hand would clutch an imaginary pair of tawse. Already Tommy had made him self-conscious. He peered covertly¹³ at Tommy, and Tommy caught him at it every time, and then each quickly looked another way, and Cathro vowed¹⁵ never to look again, but did it next minute, and what enraged¹⁶ him most was that he knew Tommy noted¹⁷ his attempts at self-restraint as well as his covert¹⁴ glances. All the other pupils knew that a change for the worse had come over the dominie's temper. They saw him punish Tommy frequently without perceptible cause, and that he was still unsatisfied when the punishment was over. This apparently¹⁸ was because Tommy gave him a look before returning to his seat. When they had been walloped they gave Cathro a look also, but it merely meant, "Oh, that this was a dark road and I had a divot in my hand!" while his look was unreadable, that is unreadable to them, for the dominie understood it and writhed¹⁹. What it said was, "You think me a wonder, and therefore I forgive you."
 
"And sometimes he fair beats Cathro!" So Tommy's schoolmates reported at home, and the dominie had to acknowledge its truth to Aaron. "I wish you would give that sacket a thrashing for me," he said, half furiously, yet with a grin on his face, one day when he and the warper chanced to meet on the Monypenny road.
 
"I'll no lay a hand on bairn o' Jean Myles," Aaron replied. "Ay, and I understood you to say that he should meet his match in you."
 
"Did I ever say that, man? Well, well, we live and learn."
 
"What has he been doing now?"
 
"What has he been doing!" echoed Cathro. "He has been making me look foolish in my own class-room. Yes, sir, he has so completely got the better of me (and not for the first time) that when I tell the story of how he diddled Mr. Ogilvy, Mr. Ogilvy will be able to cap it with the story of how the little whelp diddled me. Upon my soul, Aaron, he is running away with all my self-respect and destroying my sense of humor."
 
What had so crushed the dominie was the affair of Francie Crabb. Francie was now a pupil, like Gavin Dishart and Tommy, of Mr. Cathro's, who detested²⁰ the boy's golden curls, perhaps because he was bald himself. They were also an incentive²¹ to evil-doing on the part of other boys, who must give them a tug²² in passing, and on a day the dominie said, in a fury, "Give your mother my compliments, Francie, and tell her I'm so tired of seeing your curls that I mean to cut them off to-morrow morning."
 
"Say he shall not," whispered Tommy.
 
"You shanna!" blurted²³ out Francie.
 
"But I will," said Cathro; "I would do it now if I had the shears²⁴."
 
It was only an empty threat, but an hour afterwards the dominie caught Tommy wagering²⁵ in witchy marbles and other coin that he would not do it, and then instead of taking the tawse to him he said, "Keep him to his bargains, laddies, for whatever may have been my intention at the time, I mean to be as good as my word now."
 
He looked triumphantly²⁶ at Tommy, who, however, instead of seeming crestfallen²⁸, continued to bet, and now the other boys were eager to close with him, for great was their faith in Cathro. These transactions were carried out on the sly, but the dominie knew what was going on, and despite his faith in himself he had his twitches²⁹ of uneasiness.
 
"However, the boy can only be trusting to fear of Mrs. Crabb restraining me," he decided, and he marched into the school-room next morning, ostentatiously displaying his wife's largest scissors. His pupils crowded in after him, and though he noticed that all were strangely quiet and many wearing scared faces, he put it down to the coming scene. He could not resist giving one triumphant²⁷ glance at Tommy, who, however, instead of returning it, looked modestly down. Then—"Is Francie Crabb here?" asked Mr. Cathro, firmly.
 
"He's hodding ahint the press," cried a dozen voices.
 
"Come forward, Francie," said the dominie, clicking the shears to encourage him.
 
There was a long pause, and then Francie emerged in fear from behind the press. Yes, it was Francie, but his curls were gone!
 
The shears fell to the floor. "Who did this?" roared the terrible Cathro.
 
"It was Tommy Sandys," blurted out Francis, in tears.
 
The school-master was unable to speak, and, alarmed at the stillness, Francie whined³⁰, "He said it would be done at ony rate, and he promised me half his winnings."
 
It is still remembered by bearded men and married women who were at school that day how Cathro leaped three forms to get at Tommy, and how Tommy cried under the tawse and yet laughed ecstatically at the same............